WITH twelve weeks to go until Parklife Weekender’s third consecutive festival, it’s been announced that 2012 will be the festival’s final year at its current location of Platt Fields Park.
According to promoters, ‘plans for ever more impressive production and next-level line-ups supersede the potential of the current venue’.
"The students made Parklife. They’ve really supported us, but the idea is for it not to just be a student event, which I think at the moment some people perceive it as."
Sacha, Parklife co-director told Confidential: "Platt Fields holds 30,000. We haven’t got an ideal figure at the moment of how much space we’ll need, but the problem is we’ve been selling out two years in a row.
“It’s supply and demand. The festival started two years ago and year on year the line ups are increasing. We need a bigger site.”
Platt Fields Park is of course situated right in the hub of Manchester’s student community who have dominated the summer festival since it began in 2010. Students live for festivals only to vomit them up again the next day, but a move away from Fallowfield could be seen a risk. Sacha and the team however, believe the students will follow the Pied Piper of Parklife wherever it may take them.
He said: “As long as the product's right, the line up and the entertainment creatively, the students will travel. The students made Parklife. Without them it just wouldn’t exist and it is now seen as part of the student calendar. They’ve really supported us, but the idea is for it not to just be a student event, which I think at the moment some people perceive it as.”
Last year’s festival was indeed very young and up for it. Away from the safety blanket of the press area, the field was awash with hyperactive undergrads resembling ‘Hollyoaks meets the Somme’ according to Simon Binns’ report from last year.
Still, you can’t knock the music – The Flaming Lips, Noah & The Whale, Kelis, Dizzee Rascal and Labrinth are the big names this year - and if moving the festival away from studentsville will make it more accessible for locals, we could see a perfect balance. A bit like Glastonbury?
Sacha said: “We’re by no means expecting to be Glastonbury next year but to squeeze another few thousand on would be quite nice. We do want to open it up to the public though, and even if you look at the line up this year you’ll see we’ve booked Flaming Lips for example. They aren’t an ideal student booking such as Dizzee Rascal, so it just helps to open it up to everyone.”
The festival may be waving bye to Platt Fields but it’s by no means the end to Parklife or indeed the park life we know and love.
“The next one will be somewhere beautiful where you can create something. Parklife, by the nature of its name, will always be among the fields" confirmed Sacha.
Parklife Weekender co-promoter Sam Kandel added: “Platt Fields provided a great start for The Parklife Weekender and we’ve been really grateful. We’re really looking forward to bidding farewell to Platt Fields in style. Goodbye Platt Fields."
Tickets for this year’s Parklife Weekender cost £64.50 for a full weekend ticket. Click here for the full line up and more information.
